Fostering children\u27s expressive language skills through Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (2009)

This qualitative study sets out to investigate my implementation of Aistear: The Early Childhood Curriculum Framework (2009) and how I can afford the children in this study with multiple pathways of expression that cultivate and expand on their language skills. Play and play-based learning approaches have been linked synonymously with fostering many aspects of a child’s development, yet contemporary issues on Play highlight an uncertainty on its role within formal education. Aistear is a play-based framework employed in Irish primary schools that looks to support the holistic development of children and categorises communication as an essential component for life-long learning. Being an effective communicator does not solely rely on the ability to articulate oneself verbally but requires you to draw on other more precise elements of language. Not all children can verbally express their feelings and thoughts, so other forms of expressive language opportunities are needed to ensure that a genuine voice may be unearthed and protected. The findings from this study suggest that the success of this framework relies heavily on the knowledge and expertise of the teacher implementing it. The intervention employed in this research justifies that Aistear can foster expressive language skills but only when provided with the opportunity and autonomy to do so. Drawing provided children with an enjoyable platform to express themselves while simultaneously eliciting key learning outcomes. This worked particularly well as a hidden form of assessment for children who had a limited vocabulary or poor social skills. Role-Play was considered an integral Play Centre that targeted many aspects of a child’s academic and social being while affording them with various opportunities to practise and enhance their expressive language skills